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Jury convicts stepmother of child abuse

By Becky Metrick

bmetrick@publicopinionnews.com @BeckyMetrickPO on Twitter

Updated:
02/10/2014 04:24:32 PM EST

Chambersburg >> A Franklin County jury convicted Michele Hunter on Monday, who was charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children for allegedly shoving and permanently disabling her 4-year-old stepson.

The case went to the jury at around 11 a.m. and they returned stone-faced but ready with their final decision at around 3 p.m. Hunter has been on trial since last Tuesday.

Hunter was found guilty on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, endangering the welfare of children and conspiracy to commit endangering the welfare of children. She is expected to be sentenced on March 19.

First Assistant District Attorney Lauren Sulcove said she was "very pleased" by the jury's decision. She said the malice shown by Hunter in text messages she sent to her husband "put this case over the edge" in her mind.

Defense Attorney Stephen Kulla said Hunter was "disappointed" and surprised at the conviction for the aggravated assault charge. He said she expected the conviction for endangering the welfare of children, but not aggravated assault.

He said he'll meet with her about possible options, but motions can't be filed until after sentencing.

The boy's adoptive mother Kim Travis said she was "thrilled" by the verdict.

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There was a scary moment for the family as the jury had three questions during the deliberation, with the last reassembling the court to clarify when the aggravated assault stopped and the endangering the welfare of children started, Kim Travis said.

"I was worried," she said, afraid that they wouldn't be get the conviction for aggravated assault.

Her husband Bob Travis sat through the entire trial, which she was not allowed to do because of her role as a witness. He called the whole thing "emotional and draining."

"It gives (the victim) the justice he deserved," Bob said. Kim added that they plan on reading a victim's statement during Hunter's sentencing hearing.

As a father, Bob Travis said that some of the hardest parts of the trial were listening to the 911 call, because he couldn't understand "not doing anything."

"It seems like he was let down for a really long time," Kim said. "The jury didn't let him down."

Earlier Monday, five of Michele Hunter's family members testified about how she and her husband William Hunter treated the boy.

Hunter's mother Cheryl Pickering said the boy was required to sit at the table during meals until he had eaten all of his food, even if it meant sitting for hours. He was allegedly not allowed to drink while he was eating, and if he wanted a drink after his meal, he would have to sit and drink it individually and not take it in a sippy cup, because that was considered "a baby thing," Pickering said.

Pickering testified that she had seen many of the abuses previously documented in the case, because the Hunters had been living with her for a time.

Pickering said she had been estranged from the family between January 2011 and the March 10 incident her daughter is charged in, because she disagreed with how the boy was treated.

Pickering' said that when she ran into the family at Wal-Mart, "he looked pathetic," due to losing his hair and being extremely thin.

First Assistant District Attorney Lauren Sulcove asked Pickering if the boy was happier away from his parents, and she said he was, but mostly was happier when he was playing with other kids. In a police interview, Pickering told officers that she blamed her daughter and William Hunter for what happened to the boy. Sulcove asked if she still felt that way.

"I do," Pickering said. "I still blame them both."

Michele Hunter's two sisters Julie and Jennifer Poe testified to the abuses they allegedly saw William Hunter commit. Julie Poe testified that she had seen William allegedly make his son wear a weighted backpack as a strength-building exercise, but that the backpack was weighted with adult sized tools. She said William told the boy to do jumping jacks, and only stopped him after 10 minutes.

Julie Poe said that after this "exercise" William Hunter picked up his son by the legs and shook the crying boy.

Jennifer Poe testified that she fought with her sister after a potty training incident in which WIlliam allegedly left his son on the toilet for hours and put ice on the boy's back to keep him awake.

Michele Hunter's aunt and uncle, Deborah and Barry Davis,said they saw William Hunter being rough with his son, and spanking him hard for a boy his age. For all of these incidents, the boy would have been between two and four years of age. Three of the family members recalled seeing bruises, and Deborah Davis said she sometimes saw handprints on the boy's back where she would also see William Hunter smacking him.

All agreed that Michele Hunter rarely intervened or tried to because William would not let her, always stating that the boy was his son and he could do what he wanted.

After the family testified, defense attorney Stephen Kulla and Sulcove gave their closing statements to the jury.

Kulla went first, talking about how the District Attorney's office had the burden of proof, and through their presentation he felt that the jury would be required to find his client not guilty.

He said that through testimony of members of Franklin County Children and Youth Services, he saw that Michele Hunter was willing to work with them, listen, and wanted to follow up. He said the jury could not trust Wiliam Hunter's testimony because he was only trying to please the District Attorney's office for a plea deal and all he proved was that "he's a pathological liar."

Kulla said that only one of the detectives from Chamersburg Police asked his client direct questions without any games, while others either "had a plan" to "get a confession" or were playing the good cop/bad cop routine. He said Hunter was overwhelmed, depressed to the point of being suicidal and distraught when she gave her confession to police, and that was why it could not be considered a real confession.

Kulla said multiple witnesses testified to the abusive nature of William Hunter, and that he controlled Michele. He argued she is not guilty, because of William Hunter's control over her, forcing her to stay quiet and not call police.

Sulcove began her closing arguments with a statement to the boy.

"You are not weak. You are not a wimp, a retard or a puppet, you are not bruised anymore," Sulcove said before turning to look at Michele Hunter. "You are a human being."

From there, she replayed Michele's police interview confession of shoving the boy, saying that there was a "ring of truth" to it. Sulcove said that she felt the only reason Hunter recanted her confession was because "it's self-preservation."

Sulcove reviewed the charges with the jury, explaining how the various parts of her evidence fit into the four charges. She said Hunter knew the boy was frail, had said herself that he bruised easily and still pushed him "extremely hard" in her own words. She replayed Michele's 911 call, and reread some of the text messages both acknowledging the problem the boy was having, but taking it rather lightly compared to what "a normal person" might do.

Sulcove said Michele's lack of emotion during the case was part of the proof that she felt little toward the boy who now is permanently brain damaged.

"This is a case about a woman who took a normal life from a child," Sulcove said to the jury. "Find her guilty."